1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatuses and methods for distribution and delivery of ordered goods, and in particular to apparatuses and methods for distribution and delivery of goods ordered on the World Wide Web. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, apparatuses and methods are provided for delivering ordered goods to a local distribution center instead of directly to customers' houses for the benefit of reduced shipping costs, and better handling of perishables.
2. Related Background
Internet shopping sites have abounded in recent years. In these sites, shoppers generally peruse goods that are offered for sale on-line, and can earmark goods for purchase by clicking certain icons to place them in a virtual “shopping cart” for later purchasing. The purchase can then be consummated by proceeding to a “check-out” page or pages, in which certain information, such as payment information (typically a credit card number) and delivery information (typically the home address of the shopper), is entered. In an alternative model, such as the model disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,411 to Hartman et al., no shopping cart is used, and the purchase is consummated simply by clicking-on the desired item, with the payment and delivery information having been previously entered.
In either case, an Internet shopping site suffers from a significant drawback in comparison with a conventional brick-and-mortar store: because in most cases a purchased good cannot be provided to the shopper via the Internet, it must be provided via delivery or some other similar mechanism. By far, the most common way of doing that is to ship the ordered goods to the shopper's home, using a carrier such as United Parcel Service (UPS), or the like. Such carriers, of course, must be paid for their services, increasing the cost of selling and/or buying goods over the Internet.
In addition to the added expense, both to the vendor and to the recipient, of home delivery, carrier-based home delivery of goods suffers from a further disadvantage in that it often occurs at a time when no one is home to accept delivery. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that generally recipients are not notified by the carrier as to the time a package will be delivered. This phenomenon can be quite inconvenient for people who are away from their homes or apartments at work for the better part of each day.
Attempts at providing “centralized shopping sites” have been made to consolidate ordering activities. In a site maintained by Lycos, for example, various Web-based vendors are made available by clicking an icon from the central Lycos portal site. Clicking an icon brings you to the associated vendor's site. However, when you visit the site, your display is always framed by Lycos subject matter. Thus, while the appearance of centralized shopping may be given, the purchases are done at the individual sites, using their individualized purchasing and shipping methodologies.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,454 to Harrington is directed to an integrated interface for shopping Web sites as well as non-Internet vendors. A database is provided that includes real Internet vendor sites, corresponding to vendors having sites on the Internet, and virtual Internet vendor sites, which correspond to vendors not having a site on the Internet. A consumer can purchase goods from either of these types of vendors from a common location, using a universal “shopping trolley”. Ordered items, however, are still shipped by the individual vendors to the shipper's home.
While adding convenience for the consumer, these centralized shopping sites do not address the problem of significant costs for the shipment of the ordered goods.
Also known, are warehouse/member clubs which provide discounted merchandise to consumers based upon volume discounts. While allowing a shopper to purchase many items at a single location, these outlets provide neither the convenience of “shop at home” offered by the Internet, nor the almost unlimited selection available on-line.
A post office (P.O.) box allows a consumer to receive all of his or her merchandise at a centralized location. However, shipment of merchandise to a P.O. box provides limited benefit to consumers and essentially no benefit to vendors. With regard to consumers, maintenance of the P.O. box costs money. Therefore, any convenience of central location for the consumer must be balanced against the cost. Further, from the point of view of the vendor, the fact that each customer maintains a central pick-up point results in no consolidation of ordered goods, since goods are still sent to a separate P.O. box for each consumer, resulting in no economies of scale and leaving the vendor with significant shipping charges to pass along to all of its customers.
Further, from the consumer's perspective, P.O. boxes provide no notification of the arrival of ordered items, have predetermined limits to the size of the delivered items, and provide limited access times to pick-up the delivered items. In addition, the consumer is not kept informed of the fact that a shipment may contain perishable items and may delay picking up the package, especially if he or she is used to making a once a week pickup.
Thus, there is a need to provide for an efficient way for vendors to centralize the shipping process to allow vendors to gain the benefit of consolidated shipping and to provide significant cost and convenience advantages to consumers.